the state of play syndrome

As I mentioned earlier, some are speculating that the immensely popular Swedish book series, Millenium, could be given the Hollywood treatment by some of the biggest guns in town, Quentin Tarantino and Brad Pitt. I get that American audiences have particular tastes (molded by the industry, of course), but frankly I find it kind of pathetic that foreign imports always have to be reinterpreted in the Hollywood framework to even see the light of day here in the States.



Take the brilliant BBC miniseries State of Play, for example. I didn't get a chance to see the Crowe-Affleck version (which, as I understand it, received relatively good reviews), but what exactly was wrong with the British version? Why didn't it get any air time on American TV? It features well-known, well-respected, and recognizable actors (James McAvoy, Bill Nighy, and the lovely Kelly MacDonald) who could have held up just fine in a movie version. And why shift the action to DC when London is equally, if not more, picturesque? And you can't even use the language excuse on this one.

Should Millenium make it Stateside, I wonder what kinds of changes would be made. Surely the action would be transposed to some American location. Easy enough. And I get that American audiences might not want to go see a movie in a foreign language, spoiled as we are with our language advantage and unaccustomed to reading subtitles. But there are so many high quality foreign films out there that just aren't correctly handled in the Hollywoodization process. I would hate for this great franchise to be one of them.